The church of San Francesco D'Assisi overlooks a large square under which an interesting archaeological area extends which has elements in common with the entrenched villages; during the Middle Ages this area was used as a burial place. The first building dedicated to San Francesco d'Assisi, It dates back to 1200 and it was built on a hypogeum nucleus dedicated to Saints Peter and Paul, which can still be visited today by passing through a trap door located inside the current church. The facade took on its present shape in the eighteenth century and represents a further example of Baroque style. It is marked by pilasters and is divided into two parts defined by a cornice cornice that develops on the sides. In the lower part the portal and five windows are embellished with decorative floral elements; in the upper part there is a central niche where a statue of the Madonna is placed while at the ends of the cornice there are the statues of San Francesco on the right and Sant'Antonio da Padova on the left. The single nave interior includes several side chapels, there are also numerous paintings by Neapolitan masters who contribute to increasing the artistic value of this place of worship. The most interesting works are a 15th century polyptych articulated in 9 panels depicting the Madonna and some saints, and a thirteenth-century stoup carved in stone and placed near the entrance. The church of San Francesco D'Assisi, located on the Plan, it overlooks a large square which develops at the crossroads between via Ridola and via del Corso. Under the square there is an extensive underground area. Archaeological survey works have brought to light a very interesting situation that presents elements that can be traced back to different eras. Testimonies attesting human settlements dating back to the VIII-VII centuries BC. are the holes intended to house the structural poles of the houses and defensive fences and the circular pits aimed at containing and storing food products. These and other elements make it possible to place this site within the dense network of settlements that stretched between the Murge plateau and the Bradano Valley. The finds testify as in the following centuries, in a phase of reorganization of the territorial structure of the entire area, the site was abandoned and used for a short time, before the final abandonment, as a burial ground. After a few centuries that the archaeological documentation returns us empty of human presence, around the X AD. the area was again used as a necropolis. As for the church, four phases can be identified that led to the definition of the structure as we know it today. The first building dedicated to San Francesco d'Assisi dates back to 1200 and popular tradition attributes its foundation to the saint himself; only very few elements that are difficult to observe inside the building have survived. The foundations of the church were built on a hypogeum nucleus dedicated to Saints Peter and Paul, of which there are reports that date back to 1185, which can be visited by going through a trap door located inside the current church. The crypt consists of two rooms in which it is possible to admire valuable examples of cave painting; in the first there is a fresco depicting San Vincenzo, while in the second a representation of the Madonna and Child and adjacent to it a representation dating from the thirteenth century, by unknown author, of the visit of Pope Urban II of 1093. From the 14th century following the expansion of the religious structure above, this place was used as a burial ground. Later in the fifteenth century works were carried out to extend the structure with the addition of some of the internal chapels; The fifteenth-century artistic testimonies are the frescoes, come to us crippled in some parts, which are located behind the high altar and which came to light following the removal of the wooden choir. On this same occasion, the adjacent convent was built which is currently no longer part of the urban system of the city. In 1936 fu, indeed, inserted in a restoration project that led to the total alteration of the 18th-19th century axis of the Plan; palaces with austere architectures were built to house the Banco di Napoli, the Post Office and other administrative and bureaucratic structures. The next intervention, wanted by Archbishop Lanfranchi, it's old 1670 and concentrated mainly in a first remake of the facade while the last intervention dates back to the late eighteenth century and was aimed at ending the facade inspired by the Baroque and to decorate the interior which was transformed with the insertion of ornamental friezes. The facade was designed by architects Vito Valentino and Tommaso Pennetta and built by an unknown third architect, it is marked by pilasters and divided into two parts by a string course cornice that develops on the sides. In the lower part the portal and five windows are embellished with decorative floral elements; in the upper part there is a central niche where there is a statue of the Immaculate Madonna flanked by two angels holding an ornamental drape; at the ends of the cornice there is the statue of San Francesco on the right and that of Sant'Antonio da Padova on the left. The interior has a single nave; there are several side chapels inside which it is possible to admire very particular artistic and decorative elements. To the right, in the second chapel there is a very elaborate carved wooden altar of the seventeenth century and a sixteenth-century sarcophagus by Eustacchio Paulicelli probably made by Aurelio Persio in the sixteenth century; on the left instead, in the second chapel there is a canvas created at the end of the sixteenth century by Antonio Stabile and depicting the Immaculate Conception, while in the next chapel there is the passage that leads to the crypt of Saints Peter and Paul. The work of greatest artistic interest consists of a polyptych built in the fifteenth century currently located on the organ choir; for a long period it was attributed to Bartolomeo Vivarini only to have later identified its author in Lazzaro Bastiani, it is divided into nine panels depicting a Madonna and Child Enthroned in the center and some saints in the panels placed on the sides. Finally, a further element worthy of note is represented by a thirteenth-century stoup made of stone and located to the left of the entrance, it has some common features with the stoups that can be observed in the Cathedral and in the churches of San Giovanni and San Domenico.